Pogo Freestyle and Extreme Pogo Sticks

Pogo is one exhausting way to have fun and exercise by bouncing up and down on a springy pole called a pogo stick. A pogo stick is a metal pole that has a handle on the top, a spring mechanism on the bottom and two foot plates to stand on. You have to stand on the foot plates and stay upright through some clever balancing and a spot of bouncing.

Pogo is best done on hard ground to maximise the effect of the spring. Due to physics and other stuff, trying to pogo on soft surface like grass or sand may help if you fall off, but pretty much prevents you from bouncing.

How to get on a pogo stick

To mount a pogo stick, you should hold onto the handles with both hands, and place one foot on one of the foot plates. Now for the tricky bit. Whilst trying to balance, place the other foot on. Easy eh?

How to jump on a pogo stick

To start with, you might want to just try balancing on the spot without jumping, just to get a feel for it. Once you have a rough idea of the balance, you can begin bouncing.
You bend your knees to jump up and down on the pogo stick, to compress the spring and get the rebound. As you progress, you will find that you use your whole body to begin lifting the pogo stick up into the air when you jump.

Steering a pogo stick

To steer where you bounce, you move the handles so that they are not directly above the bottom of the pogo stick. So, to bounce forward, you move the handles forward. When you bounce, the Spring will catapult you off in that direction. Sometimes, it will catapult you off and you find yourself on the floor.
When you start out, be prepared for a few falls. It is always great fun to watch adults having a go at pogo, especially when they are drunk.

Pogo tricks, stunts and extreme moves

Modern pogo sticks such as the Vurtego,[7] Flybar,[8] BowGo,[9] and the Up Wing pogo stick,[10] allow you to jump much higher and perform backflips. This has led to the rise of extreme pogo, also called Xpogo.
Xpogo is the name given to extreme pogo tricks and stunts. For a taster of what you can do, here is a little YouTube video of extreme pogo.

Among the Xpogo community, it is generally accepted that Dave Armstrong from Provo, Utah was likely the first person to make an effort to do tricks on a traditional steel spring pogo stick, beginning in 1999. He setup Xpogo.com to share pictures and video of his bouncing.

2004 was the first year “extreme” pogo sticks appears in stores. Xpogos can carry adult weights with a bounce height potential of over 6 feet. Instead of using a steel spring, Xpogos like the Flybar used giant rubber “elastomers,” creating a bungee-like jumping sensation. The new pogo jump height potential made the back flip possible.

The Best Xpogo to buy

According to Xpogo.com, the best selling extreme pogo sticks in 2016 are Super Pogo, NSG FLight and the Vurtego V4 Pro. You can even buy a pogo stick backpack to carry it around with you.

Where can I buy a pogo stick?

Most sports and toy stores sell pogo sticks, but you can buy direct from Xpogo.com or you can buy pogo sticks from Amazon.com
If you are in the UK, you can buy pogo sticks from Amazon.co.uk

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